The '03 Music Hierarchy

Ranked by Preference:

10

THE BLOOD BROTHERS - Burn, Piano Island, Burn [Holy crap. If I could bottle the crazy friggin' energy that these guys put out, I'd be able to put Red Bull out of business. Hopped-up, musically complex and kinda fun in a really nasty sort of way, this might be the best rock album of the decade. Great surrealistic lyrics, too. Best moment: When the underlying structure of 'Six Nightmares at the Pinball Masquerade' falls completely apart, leaving the song in complete chaos for about forty-five seconds before twin lead singers Jordan Blilie and Johnny Whitney pull it back by shrieking "WE ARE THE SIX NIGHTMARES AT THE MASQUERADE!"]
AESOP ROCK - Bazooka Tooth [An entirely different affair than "Labor Days" -- this is brasher, noisier and way stranger. It sounds, at times, like a man teetering on the edge of sanity. And it's still totally awesome, a compulsively listenable collection of freaked-out backpacker tracks. As for Aesop's lyrics... well, there's an entire stanza of 'The Greatest Pac-Man Victory in History' where all the words start with the letters L, S or D. I stand in awe.]

9

CURSIVE - The Ugly Organ
OUTKAST - Speakerboxxx/The Love Below
RADIOHEAD - Hail to the Thief [A haunting synthesis of the various phases of Radiohead. I have to wonder where they can possibly take their from here, and I can't bloody wait to find out. The sinister edge to the songs on this is suprising; on tracks like 'Where I End and You Begin' and 'Myxomitosis,' Thom Yorke sounds creepier than a sackful of snakes in a broken elevator.]
BASEMENT JAXX - Kish Kash [If this don't make your booty move, your booty must be dead.]

8

NICK CAVE AND THE BAD SEEDS - Nocturama
THE MARS VOLTA - De-Loused in the Comatorium
THE PERNICE BROTHERS - Yours, Mine and Ours
THERAPY? - High Anxiety
AN ALBATROSS - We Are the Lazer Viking
EXTENDED FAMM - Happy F*ck You Songs
LIGHTNING BOLT - Wonderful Rainbow
MUSE - Absolution [This sounds like Radiohead getting cornholed by Queen -- it's got all the trappings of the former's paranoid, inward-to-the-future alt-rock and a huge serving of the operatic bombast that marked the latter. Doesn't sound like a marriage that should work, but somehow it does, quite wonderfully. Odd.]
RAINER MARIA - Long Knives Drawn [Flawless, catchy indie pop. Its only fault is frontloading the album's most addictive and polished track, so that everything else sounds a bit lesser in comparison, but that's a good problem to have.]

7

ERASE ERRATA - At Crystal Palace
EVERY TIME I DIE - Hot Damn!

6

PARTY FUN ACTION COMMITTEE - Let's Get Serious
MINISTRY - Animositisomina
ARCH ENEMY - Anthems of Rebellion
STRIKE ANYWHERE - Exit English
CHRISTIANSEN - Stylish Nihlists

5

CURLUPANDDIE - We May Be Through With the Past...
CAVE IN - Antenna
FIREWATER - The Man on the Burning Tightrope
DEFTONES - Deftones

4

GIVE UP THE GHOST - We're Down Til We're Underground

3

STRAPPING YOUNG LAD - S.Y.L.

PENDING

ATMOSPHERE - Seven's Travels
BLACK CROSS - Art Offensive
COUGARS - Nice, Nice
DEATH BY STEREO - Into the Valley of Death
EELS - Shootenanny!
THE MAJESTICONS - Beauty Party
THE NOTWIST - Neon Golden
OKKERVIL RIVER - Down the River of Golden Dreams
A PERFECT CIRCLE - Thirteenth Step
SOME GIRLS - All My Friends Are Going Death
THE STREETS - Original Pirate Material